Mel Stride And Priti Patel Get Top Jobs In Kemi Badenoch's New Shadow Cabinet

Mel Stride has been appointed the new Shadow Chancellor (Alamy)

2 min read5 hr

New Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has appointed Mel Stride as Shadow Chancellor and Priti Patel as Shadow Foreign Secretary, along with announcing other key members of her Shadow Cabinet.

Badenoch was announced as the new leader of the Conservative Party on Saturday, winning 53,806 votes from members compared to Robert Jenrick's 41,388. Jenrick has now been given a role as Shadow Justice Secretary.

Addressing a room of supporters and members in London after the result, Badenoch said the party's "first responsibility" would be to hold the Labour Government to account, and the second would be prepare for power so that by the next election they would have a "clear plan" on how to implement their policies.

"It is time to get down to business. It is time to renew," she said.

Badenoch's first round of Shadow Cabinet appointments indicate she is giving the top jobs to those who also stood to be leader, in what will likely be seen as an effort to help unify the party after its worst election defeat in history in July.

Here are the key appointments so far:

Shadow Chancellor – Mel Stride MP

Mel Stride has become the new Shadow Chancellor, having previously served as Work and Pensions Secretary in the last Conservative government. He is taking over as Shadow Chancellor from former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who is standing down from having any frontbench role.

Having stood in the Conservative leadership contest himself, Stride was knocked out in the second round of MP votes.

He is seen as belonging to the One Nation, more moderate wing of the party.

Shadow Foreign Secretary – Priti Patel MP

Priti Patel has become the new Shadow Foreign Secretary. Patel was previously home secretary between 2019 and 2022, as well as Secretary of State for International Development between 2016 and 2017.

She also stood to be leader this time around, but was the first candidate to be eliminated from the race.

A leading Brexit campaigner, Patel is regarded as being on the right of the Tory party.

Shadow Secretary of State appointments:

Shadow Secretary of State for Justice – Robert Jenrick MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Education – Laura Trott MP

Party chairmen

Joint party chairmen – Nigel Huddleston MP and Lord Johnson

Whips' Office:

Opposition Chief Whip (Commons) – Rebecca Harris MP

Some previous Cabinet ministers from the last government, including Jeremy Hunt, James Cleverly, Steve Barclay, and Oliver Dowden, are not expected to take up shadow ministerial roles and will return to the backbenches.

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